Brenda Slomka enters the municipal election race to become mayor of Kingston

Another candidate tossed her hat into the ring for the position of Kingston mayor on Friday.Brenda Slomka, who manages residence life at St. Lawrence College, is a first-time candidate who sees a need for change."I want to inspire Kingstonians to believe that municipal politics can be based on a culture of co-operation and compassion, uniting us, not dividing us," said Slomka.Slomka sees the position of mayor and council as a place to create change through leadership."Leadership is about the ability to work with others," said Slomka. "The ability to say I might not agree with you but what can we agree on and how do we move that forward to find common ground."With mayor Mark Gerretsen announcing he will not be returning to the position in October, Slomka says that won’t have an affect on how she runs her campaign."I think no matter who is running there are some key tenents for me of expressing a clear vision, showing up and working hard," said Slomka. "I love living here and I love being part of this community so I’m casting a vision for us, for you, to be part of that."Slomka is not afraid of speaking up for what she believes in."One of the big issues that we’re going to face in this election is a referendum on the casino," said Slomka. "I am completely against a casino. A casino is a regressive way of building our community. When we think about development, we need to think differently."She plans on using the experience she gained from working on numerous city committees and with community groups over the years in her campaign."I’ve had the privilege of sitting on the municipal accessibility advisory committee for a term and I’m also one of the members of the steering committee of our poverty reduction initiative," said Slomka. "Another thing that I just wanted to highlight about myself is my passion for leadership and politics started when I was elected as president of the federation of students at the University of Waterloo. I had the great fortune to work with and alongside the now Governor-General David Johnston, at that time the president, to sit on building and property committees and to help with initiative and goals of the university."Slomka has also been working part time to complete her master’s in Public Administration from Queen’s University.Her vision for the city includes smart, innovative, collaborative community building.When she spoke to supporters and the media outside City Hall Friday afternoon she explained the pillars of her platform."The first is a culture of co-operation and compassion in a city that works across party lines, and across business lines, that sees organizations working together," said Slomka. "Decision making needs to be based in policy, that’s researched and evidence based that’s best practices, not just on what serves the needs of certain people in our community."As well, she focused on the need to support local social programs, responsible community development and fiscal transparency."Governance and transparency is a very core piece of how I want to run this campaign," said Slomka. "One of the things that we want to think about is who are we welcoming to the city, when do they show up and that everybody has a voice in this city, whether they’re here for four years, if they’re here for 18 years or if they were born here. I think we’re going to see a lot of talk about what it means to create a city that welcoming and engaging."julia.mckay@sunmedia.ca